Autographing Brunelleschi’s Dome: ‘Autography’

An innovative program called “Autography” at Florence’s historical Cathedral (Duomo) and Bell Tower is turning a deplorable graffiti habit into a creative marketing tool.

As the caretakers of the world’s monuments are well aware, there’s something about public sculptures and buildings that inspires a certain kind of visitor to literally leave their own mark on history.

A case in point is the Cathedral and Belltower complex. Until last year, thousands of damaging, unsightly scribbles carpeted the stones on the inside of the 14th century Belltower, designed by Arnolfo di Cambio and Giotto, as well as almost all the walls of the sixteen-flight spiral staircase leading to the top of Filippo Brunelleschi’s Dome. Even the bronze bells and the beautiful marble archways of the lantern atop the Dome were not left unscathed by the pen-wielding vandals, who seemed unaffected by pleas from both the authorities and the press.

Faced with the impossibility of installing webcams everywhere on the building, the architects and engineers in charge of the monumental complex decided on a creative response to some visitors’ desire to leave their own mark of immortality. The “Autography” project welcomes the 800,000 visitors to the Duomo complex each year by telling them “if you write on the walls, we’ll remove it; leave us your digital message and we will keep it as a work of art.”

At various stations set up on the Bell Tower and now also on the Dome, app users can choose what medium they want to write their message with (pen, marker, spray paint, pencil, or lipstick) as well as a choice of surfaces to write on. Every message, no matter how trivial, (unless obscene), is catalogued in the permanent archives of the Opera del Duomo, along with its centuries-old documents in parchment. The messages can be viewed at anytime on the app’s website www.autography.operaduomo.firenze.it

Long and laborious cleaning was necessary to remove 30 years worth of vandals’ graffiti on the building’s surfaces. But the creators of the Autography project are pleased with its success. After a year’s experimentation on the Bell Tower the project received 18,000 digital graffiti messages, while the vandals’ scribbles on the walls of the 414 steps that lead to the top of the Tower dwindled to only 10.  Arnolfo, Brunelleschi, and Giotto would be pleased, and the rest of us definitely are!  (elizabeth wicks)